Compliance Magnolia, $26.98; Blu-ray, $29.98 Available on VOD beginning Jan. 8 Craig Zobel's film dramatizes that bizarre news story from a few years back about a restaurant manager who forced an employee to strip on the orders of a man impersonating a policeman. Dreama Walker plays the luckless cashier, who by the end of the night is coerced into doing naked jumping jacks in a stockroom (and worse) because her boss (played by the remarkable Ann Dowd) tells her that a cop has accused her of stealing.

As Republicans wage a sharply divisive presidential nominating contest, HBO is preparing to release a television film on the 2008 ascent of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that seems sure to reopen the wounds of that lost campaign and reignite controversy over Palin's fitness for office and the wisdom of putting her on the ticket. "Game Change," based on the 2010 book of the same name by two journalists, is not due to premiere on the pay-cable channel until March 10, but already on Friday Palin's supporters were hitting back at its depiction of her as woefully unprepared to be a national candidate or be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

"The Undefeated," a documentary about former Alaskan governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin drawn from her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life," seems to have been made as a piece of political promotion for the 2012 presidential race. But before "The Undefeated" premiered in a tiny number of theaters, Palin announced that she would not run. The film did not do well, either financially or critically. Now it has found a secondary purpose — running on Reelz Channel as an answer to the much-touted HBO film "Game Change.

Cable dramas and network comedies were in the spotlight Wednesday morning as the nominees for the 19 th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced. In the drama category, cable favorites like “Homeland,” “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “Boardwalk Empire” picked up multiple nominations, while network series were all but overlooked. The same was true in the TV movie or miniseries category, where HBO's “Hemingway & Gellhorn” and “Game Change” and History's “Hatfields & McCoys” were honored.

Tina Fey owes Sarah Palin; after all, it was Fey's spot-on impersonation of the former Republican vice presidential candidate that helped earn her an Emmy for"Saturday Night Live" in 2009. But this year, while Fey will almost certainly be up for television's top award again for her show"30 Rock," it's quite likely that another actress will get a nod for her Palin posturing. And Fey couldn't be happier for Julianne Moore, who nails Palin in the HBO movie "Game Change. " "She's fantastic!

The forecast in Philadelphia on Sunday? Shady, all day. LeSean “Shady” McCoy, that is. He trampled Detroit in a driving snowstorm, running for a club-record 217 yards, with touchdowns of 57 and 40 yards. That, against a Lions defense that hadn't given up a rushing touchdown in the previous eight games and had allowed an NFL-low 82.7 yards rushing per game. Unable to throw the ball effectively in the blizzard conditions, the Eagles kept it on the ground and gained 299 yards, mostly through the middle of the defense.

Caught “Game Change” on cable the other night. Read Charlotte Allen's Op-Ed article , “Hey, GOP, take the Palin cure,” in The Times on Sunday. And what did I learn? Well, something doesn't add up. Or, to paraphrase “I Love Lucy”: “Charlotte, you got some 'splainin' to do.” In her Op-Ed, Allen serves up equal parts lemonade and venomade in making her case that Sarah Palin should be the Republican presidential candidate in 2016. In Allen's view, Palin has it all: She has blue-collar appeal, she's “tough as nails,” and best of all, she's a woman, which, in Allen's world, gives her this advantage: “Men love Sarah Palin, and she loves men.” Yep, just what the GOP needs: a Marilyn Monroe who hunts moose too. Now, Allen also likes men, but there are some women she's not too keen about.

Downtown L.A.'s new Ace Hotel is set to open Jan. 6 , and they're preparing to celebrate with a mighty, beautiful noise. The experimental British group Spiritualized will convene a full orchestra, choir and band to re-create its landmark 1997 album "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" on Feb. 14 at the new hotel's theater . It will be the first performance in the new space, a concert co-promoted by Goldenvoice and FYF. ...

SUNDAY Will Matthew and Lady Mary marry? Whither Mr. Bates? The answers to those and other questions will have to wait, for what already feels like forever, for Season 3. Til then, there's the special "Downton Abbey — Behind the Drama. " (KOCE, 9 p.m.) Based on a bestseller with a somewhat indelicate title – hence the tasteful initials – the naughty new prime-time soap "GCB" stars Leslie Bibb and "Glee's" Kristin Chenoweth, below, as the misbehavin' ladies of a well-to-do Dallas suburb.